Billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn told Motorola Inc. he hopes to be elected to one of 12 seats on the cell-phone maker’s board of directors, company officials said Tuesday. Motorola shares rose more on the disclosure.
Paul Alfieri, a company spokesman, said Icahn filed a nomination notice with the Schaumburg-based company on Monday.
It was not immediately clear how many seats on the board were up for election. No date has been set for the company’s 2007 annual meeting.
Icahn and his entities own 33.5 million shares of Motorola — roughly 1.4 percent of the company’s outstanding shares.
Icahn has taken stakes in a number of companies in recent years, pushing for changes that he said would boost the share prices or otherwise create more value for shareholders.
Last year, for example, the financier urged Time Warner Inc. to sell its cable assets and repurchase $20 billion in shares to “unlock” value for shareholders. CEO Richard Parsons initially rebuffed Icahn, but eventually boosted the company’s buyback program.
Icahn, who has a net worth near $10 billion, was ranked 24th on Forbes’ most recent list of the wealthiest Americans.
Tuesday’s announcement comes as the world’s No. 2 cell phone maker cuts 3,500 jobs and takes other steps to reduce costs after misjudgments on pricing and sales forecasts for its high-end phones contributed to its least profitable quarter since 2004.
Motorola said it is reviewing Icahn’s nomination.